Thousands of protesters gathered peacefully Saturday outside Manchester Center at Blackstone and Shields, joining a new wave of \u201cNo Kings\u201d demonstrations sweeping the country.<\/p>\n
The Fresno rally, organized by local nonprofits, community organizers and labor unions including the May 1st Coalition and the National Union of Healthcare Workers, followed large No Kings protests in June and continued the movement\u2019s message: opposition to the Trump-era government shutdown, immigration raids and authoritarian government overreach.<\/p>\n
Demonstrators carried American and Mexican flags, and signs reading \u201cNo Kings,\u201d while chants like \u201cHey, Hey, Donald Trump has got to go\u201d rang out along Blackstone Avenue. Protesters occupied the sidewalks for several blocks, drawing honks of support from passing vehicles.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is my first protest. At 56, I never thought I\u2019d be doing this,\u201d said Lori Pardi, a facilities manager for Fresno State. \u201cI\u2019m out here today because I\u2019m seeing how this administration is destroying our democracy and dividing us, ignoring the Constitution. Immigrants are not the enemy, and anyone who is out here supporting our First Amendment rights is not the enemy. \u201d<\/p>\n
Unlike previous Fresno protests centered at River Park and Fashion Fair mall areas, Saturday\u2019s rally was at Manchester Center \u2014 placing the movement in one of the city\u2019s most historic and diverse neighborhoods.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe administration is completely not what I stand for. Not following the Constitution, dismantling our government, not following democracy. He\u2019s showing signs of a king and that\u2019s not what America is all about,\u201d said Chyna Salinas, a Starbucks worker and student at Fresno City College who saw the rally was happening on Instagram.<\/p>\n
Saturday\u2019s protest was part of a national day of action, coordinated through the No Kings coalition, which held an estimated 2,500 events across the U.S.<\/p>\n
\u201c I\u2019m here because we deserve dignity, people who treat us fair and aren\u2019t greedy for power, freedom of speech, healthcare and a government who respects that,\u201d said Roy May, a special education elementary school teacher.<\/p>\n
Former State assembly member Juan Arambula was also seen at the rally at Manchester Center. No counter-protests were apparent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thousands of protesters gathered peacefully Saturday outside Manchester Center at Blackstone and Shields, joining a new wave of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12233,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[11196,2055,536,112,1907,114,113,742,638,6706,11195],"class_list":["post-12232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-authoritarian-government","tag-blackstone","tag-donald-trump","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-city-college","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news","tag-fresno-state","tag-government-shutdown","tag-kings","tag-manchester-center"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12232"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12232\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}